Irish Heart Foundation urges healthy food policy in schools

The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) has called on the Department of Education to publish a healthy food policy following a survey which has found two-thirds of post-primary schools offer hot snacks to pupils that are high in fat and salt.

The survey of 39 post-primary schools, which looked at the type and range of meals provided, found 67 per cent of schools offered students hot snacks including sausage rolls, pizza slices and paninis.

The survey also found pupils in 51 per cent of schools are exposed daily to unhealthy food and drinks that are high in fat, sugar and salt.

Four out of 10 schools did not provide free drinking water for pupils, which a spokeswoman for the IHF said was “staggering”.

Just over a third of schools provided full hot meals, such as meat, vegetable and potatoes or casserole dishes, while the same figure offered sandwiches and cold snack options such as fruit, yoghurts, salads, cheeses, juices, smoothies, and cans.

IHF head of health promotion Maureen Mulvihill said the health of the State’s young people was “appalling”, and called on the Government to take action.

“There is no national standard to ensure that healthy, tasty and nutritious foods are provided at second level, but positively 95 per cent schools said they would be interested in a national catering standard,” she said.

‘Real disconnect’

“There is a real disconnect between what parents want, the appalling health status of our young people, what the Government hopes to achieve through Healthy Ireland, and the reality of what food young people eat at school.

“As a first step, the IHF calls on the Department of Education to immediately publish a healthy food policy stating that there should be no sales of top shelf foods from the food pyramid in schools, as indeed some schools have already done. This policy also needs to ensure that all schools provide free drinking water to pupils.”

IHF dietician Sinead Shanley, who undertook the research and scoping exercise in schools, said Ireland was in “the throes of an obesity epidemic” with as many as one in five teenagers obese or overweight.

An Ipsos MRBI poll for the IHF found 52 per cent of Irish parents would support a ban on the sale of sugary sweetened drinks in secondary schools.